Colorado legislators are grappling with a complex school-finance
puzzle following the defeat of a measure that would have funded
education in the state through 1993.

Major education groups, from the teachers' union to the
school-boards association, are urging lawmakers to make a major
financial commitment to finishing school-finance reform and providing
Colorado schools with increased revenue.

At the same time, however, the state is facing a costly surge in
enrollment, state budget shortfalls, and an unexpected decline in
property-tax revenues, all of which are playing havoc with
school-finance plans.

"We're trying to work with the teachers' association and school
executives to encourage the legislature to look at the big picture,"
said Lauren Kingsberry, legal counsel of the Colorado Association of
School Boards. "But they are more concerned with getting through this
year and the transitional fiscal year. I don't think we expect to see
anything this year that will satisfy us."

The transitional fiscal year is the upcoming six-month period from
Jan. 1 to July 1, 1992. Legislators created it last year to bring the
school fiscal year in line with the state fiscal year, which begins
July 1.

By creating a six-month fiscal interregnum, sponsors of the 1990
bill reasoned, school systems could pay for their operations out of
their property-tax incomes, which normally make up about half of all
revenues. The state, meanwhile, would have some financial leeway to
complete the phasing-in of a 1988 school-finance act, which is aimed at
equalizing per-pupil spending throughout the state.

But the plan is in trouble because student enrollment jumped in 1990
by at least 12,000 students, and is expected to continue to increase by
at least 10,000 students a year for the next four years, according to
state education department projections.

Also, a decline in property values due to the recession meant that
tax revenues from real estate fell to about $990 million, from the $1.1
billion anticipated.

Last month, the Senate gave extensive consideration to a complex
school-finance bill that would have boosted funding for the six-month
fiscal period by $50 million and provided a spending increase for the
1992-93 fiscal year as well.

But the bill, which one opponent called a "shell game," was defeated
by the Senate on April 19. Unless another school-finance measure is
adopted by the end of the session next week, legislators will face a
$232-million gap in funding by next year, analysts estimate.--mw

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